Little by little.

As I sat in Hyde Park, the sun with its golden glow, returning the trees to their shadows as it had done hours earlier, and the smell of weed and sound of gentle conversations drifted across the grass as contemporary music played from tinny speakers, a thought came into my head. This in itself isn’t perhaps unusual.

Under the light-headedness of cider and sun cream, I spoke with Michael about success and how I constantly attempt to measure my own against others. In Manila, I met so many who at the same age as me have a success I couldn’t dream of, yet I still yearn for. But I forget their situation is different. Culturally, socially, academically – there is no use in trying to compare.

Recently, there were elections in London and across England for councillors to represent people at a local level for the next few years. I, for the first time, stood. My name was on the ballot for Newington, a delightful ward that until a few months ago I lived in due to a slight change in boundaries.

My own work in campaigns paints a dire picture of potential electoral success. But alas, fortunately for me, it was more due to circumstance outside my control that meant we lost ground. Mainly the issue of Europe in the South West, along with the huge mistrust caused by tuition fees scandal for people who voted for the Liberal Democrats on the pretence that they were different, only to find that they also would break election pledges when in power.

Unfortunately, I was away during the final week of the campaign and missed polling day and the count. I want to desperately feel the exhilaration that comes at a count. But I received the results of the Southwark Liberal Democrats as I sat in Manila.

With the exception of the ward where the election was suspended due to a candidate passing away, we had kept ourselves from being wiped out by Labour. And in the ballot for the final ward in Southwark, we could increase our number on the council further.

What surprised me about my own results wasn’t the number of votes I received – still a long way from the candidate ahead of me – but the rank I placed in. The three-member ward had, as expected, returned three Labour councillors. But in fourth place read ‘James Kieran Doran – Liberal Democrat’. If anyone could have taken a seat from Labour, seemingly it would’ve been me.

So ask me again what my measure of success is? It may not be immediate or quantifiable, but in itself I am helping to change the world around me, little by little. Sometimes we all need a reminder of the greatness we each bring to the world, and I’m thankful to everyone who put their faith in me by marking an unassuming cross in the box next to my name.

Little by little, we can all be the change we wish to see in the world. Little by little, we can make the world a better place. Little by little, we will be successful.